The newest Bitcoin competitor has arrived: YoCoin. The new cryptocurrency advertises itself as having “mainstream appeal,” and seems to be taking aim at a point of criticism often levied at Bitcoin: its massive hardware requirements.

Bitcoins are produced through a process called “mining,” in which computers apply a mathematical formula to the information already contained in the existing ledger, or “blockchain,” sealing it off with what is called a “hash” in order to protect it from tampering. In order to contain the process and keep Bitcoin as a currency from being inflated to the point of zero value, the network must make the process so complex as to keep the armada of mining computers from working out the hashes too quickly. This has resulted in a sort of arms race, as the lion’s share of the mining process is now concentrated among a relatively small number of “supercomputer” facilities. For most people operating on what would be considered a normal amount of domestic processing power, mining has become practically worthless from a cost-benefit perspective.

Other alternative cryptocurrencies such as Litecoin and Quark have already identified this issue, attempting to market themselves to those without the processing capacity to efficiently mine bitcoins. Now, YoCoin has joined the pack, with a recent press release claiming that “anyone with a decent graphics card in their computer can start mining YoCoin at home with little effort.” Like other “altcoins,” YoCoin utilizes the Scrypt mining system, which relies less exclusively on processing power and more on other computing resources such as memory, which is much more expensive to scale up.

This means that it is currently less economically attractive to concentrate mining of cryptocurrencies based on the Scrypt system in the same way as has been the case with Bitcoin, but this may change in the future, as mining technology steadily becomes more efficient.

Regardless, YoCoin may be able to position itself toward more mass-market appeal – by crypto-currencies’ own standards, at any rate. The company’s press release adds that “with wallets available for Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows, no digital currency enthusiasts are left behind.” The currency is available for trading on several exchanges such as CoinExchange and Bloombit, and YoCoin is explicitly targeting a younger audience. The company also plans to expand the currency’s availability to casino platforms and additional merchants in the coming weeks.

According to Dave Wilson, YoCoin’s Chief Operating Officer, the company has been working on the project for a long time, and he states that “we look forward to taking YoCoin to the next level and beyond.”

The project does offer several interesting innovations, extending its scope past the simple mining-and-trading concept employed by other cryptocurrencies. According to its website, it hopes to be thought of as “the internet currency,” and utilizes features similar to those of a social network: Upon joining YoCoin’s peer-to-peer network, users begin accumulating “YoLife Points” based on their join dates as members and referrals of other new members.

The currency also has an extensive presence in existing social media, and seems determined to make forays into the market of those on the fence concerning cryptocurrencies but as yet unconvinced. With the altcoin market anything but empty however, only time will tell as to whether it can make enough of an impact as to pose any kind of real challenge to Bitcoin.